Vanilla

Dear Polly: We're planning on repainting several rooms in our home. The problem is that I can't stand the odor of fresh paint. Is there some way to reduce this problem? - Helen Dear Helen: Here are two tips for reducing paint odors: Add a tablespoon of vanilla extract to each gallon of paint. Stir it in well. The vanilla aroma will kill some of the paint odor. It's surprisingly effective! After painting, put a cup of ammonia in the center of the room and leave it for a day. The ammonia helps reduce the odor of the freshly painted room.

A few days ago, a newspaper in San Diego pulled ads for "Better Than Chocolate" because they featured the word "lesbian. " Apparently, the paper is showing a belated concern for the sensitivity of readers, who presumably had already digested the ads for "American Pie," which use a variety of puns to herald its story of a male teen, a chronic masturbator who finds an outlet for his sex drive by harpooning a warm dessert. As heterosexual comedies (if having sex with a pie can be said to be heterosexual)

Most people use vanilla as a flavoring for pastries and ice cream. Not Patrick Gateau. The innovative young chef of the Carl Gustaf Hotel in St. Barthelemy, French West Indies, roasts lobster with vanilla beans, steeps the fragrant pod in cocktails, and scrapes tiny black vanilla seeds into a dulcet sauce for salmon. To a generation of North Americans brought up on vanilla wafers and vanilla custard, the use of this tropical flavoring in savory dishes may seem revolutionary, if not downright outlandish.

Dear Polly: What can you add to paint to make it smell less objectionable when painting the inside of your house? - Mrs. F.V. Ordinary vanilla extract can help reduce paint odors. Just add a tablespoon or two of vanilla to each gallon of paint. Stir it in thoroughly and paint away. You'll find the vanilla-scented paint is much more pleasant to work with, and the room smells better when it's done, too. Dear Polly: To keep from losing puzzle pieces after opening the box, I put the pieces in a zip-style bag. There is no way of losing the pieces if the box should accidentally open.

Dear Anne and Nan: I have a freezer that has a fishy smell. It's really bad! I've tried everything I can think of and nothing helps. Can you help me? I am desperate! - Rosalie Kisner, Salem, Ohio Dear Rosalie: After emptying your freezer, wipe down the walls with vanilla. Be sure that you wipe the door seals and around the fan area at the back of the freezer as well. Rinse with plain water. When you replace the food, put one or two saucers of instant coffee crystals in the freezer compartment.

If your employer pumps a brisk pine scent through the air ducts into your cubicle, should you consider that a helpful hint of the great outdoors or a worrisome whiff of 1984? Aromatherapy is a new rite of the corporate cult of productivity. Once the staff has its ergonomic work stations and soothing color scheme, why not put a little invigorating peppermint in the air supply? One employer interviewed in Sunday's Inquirer even chirped proudly about being able to shift fragrances to control the moods of children in the corporate day-care center.

I recently attended the opening of the Conrad Hilton library at the Culinary Institute of America in New Hyde Park, N.Y., and it was an awesome experience. The facilities are so grand and the collections of such depth and breadth that it made me want to start my own culinary education from the beginning. Viewing menu collections from centuries past, stacks of videos on every possible cooking technique, and books, many devoted to a sole ingredient, made me feel like a fly in the Grand Canyon.

Surely it was something in the heavens that brought Max and Mina together in the midst of the Great Depression. But lox and ice cream? Now that required a human matchmaker. It came in the form of Max and Mina's grandsons, Bruce and Mark Becker, two guys from Lawrence, on Long Island, with a taste for - well, this year's hot pick is babka ice cream. Other flavors of the Beckers include lox, garlic, sweet corn, gefilte fish and ketchup, along with chocolate, vanilla, and other more conventional choices at Max & Mina's ice cream parlor in Queens.

For the muffins: 10 ounces unbleached all-purpose flour 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 eggs 1/4 cup milk 2 tablespoons heavy cream 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 1 teaspoon lemon zest 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, very soft 3/4 cup superfine sugar 1/2 cup sliced roasted almonds For...

Every summer day, it goes like this on Laurel Avenue in Washington Township. Even before Steve Myrtetus tools his Mister Softee truck onto the suburban lane, loyal customers Dudley, 13, and Roxxy, age 5, are at the door. They hear the song - that song - before anybody else. They're pacing, they're fretting, they're moaning in sweet anticipation of soft-serve vanilla on a cone. When Myrtetus finally pulls up, there's no containing them. Dudley and Roxxy go bounding across the street, straight for the truck.

For the muffins: 10 ounces unbleached all-purpose flour 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 eggs 1/4 cup milk 2 tablespoons heavy cream 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 1 teaspoon lemon zest 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, very soft 3/4 cup superfine sugar 1/2 cup sliced roasted almonds For...

Cheap vodka, to fill your jar or small bottle, about 8 ounces Spent vanilla beans, at least 3 1. Fill a mason jar or bottle with vodka. After you use the seeds of a vanilla bean in a recipe, rinse the vanilla bean and put it in the vodka. You'll need at least three vanilla beans in there for at least three weeks to get a good extract going, but it's fine to use more beans, too. Your extract is ready when it is a lovely brown color and smells like vanilla. 2. Either pour the extract into a new bottle and start over, or keep topping off the working bottle with vodka and keep shoving more vanilla beans into the bottle.

Knowing what we now know about trans fats and corn syrup and empty calories, the once-innocent melody of the neighborhood ice cream truck can sound like the bells of dietary doom. Thankfully, four area businesses are bringing healthier alternatives (and a bit of whimsy) to the frozen-confection market this summer. Rolling out of the gate on a custom-made tricycle is Little Baby's Ice Cream, featuring small-batch, mostly organic sweets by the scoop. Founders Pete Angevine, Martin Brown, and Jeffrey Ziga are closely connected to the local arts scene, and the business reflects their "food punk" aesthetic, from the reprogrammed ice-cream-truck theme song to the retro-cute logo.

CHRISTIAN GATTI'S BAVARIAN CREME 1 ounce gelatin 2 tablespoons rum 2 tablespoons brandy 2 tablespoons Grand Marnier 1 quart heavy cream 1 quart whole milk 1 vanilla bean sliced in half lengthwise with seeds removed, or 2 teaspoons real vanilla extract Pinch salt 3/4 cup sugar 12 egg yolks 1 cup white chocolate, chopped (if using white chocolate chips, add 4 tablespoons vegetable oil)...

SICK OF hearing about brines and frying and smoking? Had your fill of sage and thyme and rosemary? Tradition dictates the food groups - bird, stuffing, 'taters of various sorts and pie, pie and more pie for dessert. But within those confines there's plenty of room to get creative. We offer here some new takes on sides and pie, as well as a by-the-numbers outline of how much food you'll need to satisfy the hungry family, and a comparison of gravy mixes. But first let's talk turkey.

9 tonight DIY NETWORK It's hammer time for '90s pop star Vanilla Ice, aka Robert Van Winkle (right), who abandoned his music career (or did it abandon him?) to become an ace home renovator in this new series.

OK. It was a bad winter. The economy has seen better days. And there is a lot to worry about in the world. But it's time to forget all that and get your Jersey Shore on. No, not that idiotic MTV show, but the real thing. You know, the warm beach with sand between your toes and salty wind in your hair. And saltwater taffy, junk food that's good for your soul. So squeeze into your swimsuit and dust the cobwebs off the beach chair and let's get going! Now! All your favorite haunts are waiting.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - A summer Sunday food memory, circa 1974: I'm sitting at the table watching while my mother makes banana pudding and my older sister discusses her latest date. One talks about the frustrations of romance. The other listens, nodding, while patiently, steadily, assembling dessert: Lining the casserole dish with vanilla wafers from a box. Slicing bananas and placing the circles just so. Spooning on a layer of vanilla-flavored pudding. Building the layers until the casserole is full, then covering it with a final layer of fluffy, white whipped topping.

MIXING BEER and ice cream seems like a totally gross idea that should offend everyone. It is a disservice to two perfectly fine indulgences, akin to mixing baseball and sex. There is no reason to believe they might be consenting partners. Indeed, no less an authority than the Weekly World News reported on April 11, 1989, that beer floats were among "the world's weirdest snacks," on a "bizarre" list that included liverwurst-and-grape-jelly sandwiches. The tabloid's culinary warnings notwithstanding, I'm obliged to report that pouring beer into ice cream does not disturb the natural order.